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The Raw Food Diet: How it Works
The philosophy behind the Raw Food Diet is that raw food contains digestive enzymes, including amylases, proteases, and lipases, which help our bodies to digest food. When food is heated above 104-120 °F these enzymes are destroyed and digestion is made more difficult for us- this could lead to excess toxins in the body and cause excess consumption of food leading to obesity.
The Raw Food Diet: Good Food
Most meals on the Raw Food Diet are made up of fresh, and preferably organic, fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy produce. Plus legumes, nuts and grains, seeds, beans sun-dried fruits, purified water (not tap) and milk from a young coconut. While some will eat raw meat.
Many on the raw food diet do not eat 100% raw food but cook some a slim percentage of the food they eat. However if you want to cook any food on the raw diet you should only use a dehydrator, claim raw foodists. A dehydrator is a piece of equipment which blows hot air through the food but never reaches a temperature higher than approximately 116 °F.
The Raw Food Diet: Banned Foods
The Raw Food Diets, as the name suggest, bans all food which is not raw. So processed TV dinners, pasta and jacket potatoes are out for example.
The Raw Food Diet: Pros
The Raw Food Diet is thought to increase energy levels, improve your skin, improve digestion, reduce the risk of heart disease and ultimately leads to weight loss.
The Raw Food Diet: Cons
Food poisoning is a huge cause of concern for critics of the Raw Food Diet. Raw meat, fish, and shellfish can lead to serious illnesses if eaten raw and not properly prepared, for example. Some also think raw milk can be very dangerous too. Read more: Is Raw Milk Good for You?
Critics have also warned that pregnant women, people with anaemia, people at risk of developing osteoporosis and children should stay clear of the Raw Food diet - and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine even claim vegetarians who do not cook their food have abnormally low bone mass. However, research in this area has often been inconclusive. Read more: A Vegetarian Diet: The Benefits
Short term side-effects of the Raw Food Diet include headaches, nausea and mild depression- this is a reaction to the detoxification process.
The Raw Food Diet: What the Experts Say
“The raw food diet in it’s extreme form can be very hard and, in fact, boring to maintain,” says Blue Skies www.blueskiesfitness.co.uk nutritionist and KeeptheDoctorAway.co.uk resident nutritionist expert Sam Howells.
“However, there is a lot of support for eating a proportion of food especially fruit and vegetables uncooked. For example, boiling vegetables leeches them of their micronutrients (just look at the colour of the water when you’ve taken your veg out to see how it’s changed!) which is why we are told to steam or microwave them, but it would be better to eat them raw. In addition, what better way to ensure that you are only eating unrefined, unprocessed foods? And....the raw food diet is likely to be low in fat, particularly saturated fat which is the bad stuff and you are not going to be consuming any hydrogenated fat which is the really bad stuff!”
“Unfortunately, food safety issues come into play when we look at eating certain foods uncooked and specific population groups must be careful when eating raw food as alluded to in this article. It’s not only meat that we need to be careful about either - raw sprouted kidney beans and rhubarb can be poisonous to humans.”
“It’s also worth thinking about one of the ’principles’ behind this diet - that raw food means that the enzymes in foods aren’t destroyed leading to better digestion. Well, plant enzymes are largely rendered useless by stomach acid, even eating them raw won’t save them here! Additionally, plant enzymes are not needed for human digestion - we have our own digestive enzymes for that.”
“Raw food diet followers may also find themselves deficient in vitamin B12 and zinc which are only available from animal products.”